Canadian tax changes included:

New powers for the tax authorities to impose GST registration where they believe there may be taxable income or black market activities

Extension of the GST exemption on certain health and disability training programmes

A new system for the reporting and calculation of GST for joint venture partners. This includes the right to nominate one of the JV participates as the taxable reporting contact

A new GST grouping option for related parties. This will enable separate companies with related, commercial operations to elect to not pay GST on transactions between them – known as a Nil Consideration Election. This will require separate filings and declarations from companies’ existing returns, and all parties can be held separately liable for any undeclared GST or related penalties.. This new option will come into effect from 1 January 2015.

Richard Asquith is VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara, helping businesses understand their compliance obligations as they grow globally. He is part of the European leadership team which this year won International Tax Review's Tax Technology Firm of the Year. Richard qualified as an accountant with KPMG in the UK, and went on to work in Hungary, Russia and France with EY.